Champasak Palace Hotel Pakse

... between the two towns. At Vientiane we had an unexpected overnight stop as we needed to visit the doctor to check out a nasty rash that had appeared for no apparent reason on the back of my left hand. (Paul had helpfully diagnosed this as leprosy). We went to the doctors with some trepidation with what to expect, however they were fantastic. The doctor spoke English, diagnosed ...

... as quickly when we left. We then headed back to Pakse to return the bike and catch the bus to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

The bus took us about 9hrs and it was a sleeper. The bus was quite empty so nat had a double bed to herself and I had the back row of the bus.. ALL FIVE BEDS... we sprawled out but we still only managed a few hrs sleep as it was so bumpy but at least it was comfortable.

... Even at times in the restaurant the fog would creep in and I nearly disappeared from view across the table. Hmmm, we wondered whether the next set of falls would be the same and if we should actually make the journey there.

As it turns out, we were glad we did, even though the roads to Yaung Waterfall were even worse than before and we got out of the car from the beginning to let our driver tackle them on his own. Once there, a ...

... would have to wait until there were at least 6 people in order to leave. I was person number two. Not a big deal...I wasn't in a rush. Or so I thought until I waited OVER AN HOUR till we left. Now, again, I wasn't in a rush. I've been traveling for a year now with nowhere to be and nothing to do. And still, I was extremely annoyed by having to wait so long. I've been in plenty of other countries where you have to wait for the bus to fill before you can leave. But I've never had to ...

... heard the motorbikes were cheaper here and so were all set to set out on our motorbike adventure. It was raining a bit the day we arrived so we figured we would rent the bikes in the morning. Spent the afternoon walking around a bit, visiting the market and one of the many Wats (temples) around. Had a lovely dinner at an Indian restaurant (there are a lot of Indian restaurants in Laos, a few chains!) and then of course got ...

... help it. We walked to the drop in center, which had a good location near the market. It looks small from the outside but since it has four floors, there is a lot more space to work with. We met their "mother" for the drop in center and then we went to get breakfast at the market. We were all a little cranky because we had not eaten. We all got noodle soup, my boss’ favorite food and woke up a little.

Later in the afternoon we went to the ...

... at the most amazing sunset (stunning every night...). Honestly an amazing friendly great place as i everywhere we have seen so far in laos has been. Beers where about 60p and the room was 2 squid... After a few more beers on the first night we realised we had forgotten about food so tried to pick ourselves up to find a place to eat (about 9pm). I got up caught my foot on the hammock and fell flat on my face, the Jess misses the step down from our hut and fell ...

... br>"Sorry, we've only just arrived here ourselves. What's ahead?"
"A very old bridge. I wouldn't try and cycle across it if I were you. You'll be down at the bottom of an old gorge beneath it in no time."
"That dangerous! What's with the bike? Been traveling far?"
"I've rode from the Chinese border, maaann," he boasted.
Short of making a big boast about it, typical of a great deal of Americans, I could have done it myself.
We reached the ...

... them a Beer Lao if they won. So it was off - again - to our lodgings.
We met later for an evening meal. It was black and pleasantly cool, making our way back along the shore road, listening to the distant beating jibe of resort-type music emanating from the opposite shore on Don Det, complemented by dimly lit restaurants overlooking the shore on this side.
That's what I liked about Laos, the '4,000 Islands' turned out to be full of surprises.

... to the big town of Pakse where we found a nice hotel (ThongLung?)and treated ourselves to air-con, an en-suite, a TV and a comfy bed for 60,000kip.

Today we found a nice Indian restaurant which was the same owners as the place we'd been to on Don Dhet. We had roti and coffee for breakfats and met an English guy called Alex who'd been hanging around in town a few days as he'd ben really sick. It turned ...